


The Oddities at the House of Noone

by FancifulUniKitty



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Demonic Possession, F/M, Haunted House, Paranormal, Part 1 for the sass, Part 2 for the smut, Rey is a badass, bb8 is a sassy little shit, ben solo IS baby, ben solo is a baby, haunted dolls, just a lot of swearing, part 2 coming soon, rating will change in part 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:02:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26806306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FancifulUniKitty/pseuds/FancifulUniKitty
Summary: My entry into the Reylo Readers and Writers Spooktacular  Collection!*apparently I added it to the wrong collection when I originally published 🙈🙈*Ben loved working for Millennium, he really did. He loved getting the opportunity to travel around the world for the magazine, he loved taking photos of new and exciting things, he loved learning and writing about cultures so different from his own. Being a man of a very shy, reserved nature, it was his way of opening up and experiencing the world without fear of rejection. What Ben didn’t love, however, was Halloween. Fucking Halloween, what a ridiculous holiday, such bullshit. He hated the candy, the costumes, the kids. And yet, thanks to his mother and goddamn Poe there he was, writing an article and producing a video blog about haunted houses for their fall edition. Haunted. Houses. Haunted Fucking Houses.In which Rey owns the House of Noone, the world's leading collection of haunted artifacts and paranormal paraphernalia, and Ben is assigned to write about it.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 17
Kudos: 24
Collections: Reylo Readers & Writers - The Spooktacular Collection





	The Oddities at the House of Noone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyBrettAshley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrettAshley/gifts).



Ben loved working for Millennium, he really did. He loved getting the opportunity to travel around the world for the magazine, he loved taking photos of new and exciting things, he loved learning and writing about cultures so different from his own. Being a man of a very shy, reserved nature, it was his way of opening up and experiencing the world without fear of rejection. Having spent many years as a child, and even as an adult, being outcast because of his interests, his size, his features, his work with the magazine and YouTube channel made him feel connected to a world that had, it felt, left him behind most of his life. 

What Ben didn’t love, however, was Halloween. _Fucking Halloween, what a ridicuclous holiday, such bullshit_. He hated the candy, the costumes, the kids. Perhaps, when he was much older, if he ever found someone who could tolerate his surliness for any extended period of time, he might want one, _only_ _one_ , kid of his own. _Maybe_. But he certainly would not ever let that kid participate in this ridiculous bullshit holiday.

And yet, thanks to his mother and goddamn _Poe_ there he was, writing an article and producing a video blog about haunted houses for their fall edition. Haunted. Houses. Haunted Fucking Houses. As he drove down the dirt road surrounded by thousands upon thousands of almond trees, apple trees and orange trees, he contemplated how terrible it might be to simply not write the damn article. Might he lose his job? Yeah, he might. Might his mother never forgive him for putting her in that position? It was possible. Would Poe, once again, get to be Leia and Millennium's Golden Boy? Absolutely. And it was for that reason alone that Ben continued through the orchards until he reached the final destination on his list of stops. 

When Ben pulled up to the house, the first thing he noticed is what a _cliche_ it was. The outside was a bit dilapidated, there is a rounded spier-like structure on one side and a front porch with stone railing. It was the quintessential “scary movie house”. Like all the others he’d visited in the past four weeks. The only difference between the other homes and this was the lack of clear tourist traps. It _was_ a tourist trap, certainly, it just lacked the markings of one. There were no big signs indicating that this was his location, no parking lots or red rope. If Ben hadn’t felt like such an expert after visiting the others, he wouldn’t have even known for sure that this was _the_ house. But, there was no doubting it, he was standing outside of the last house of this blasted trip. He had made it to The House of Noone.

Getting out of his car and popping open the trunk, he circled around to the back to double check that his camera equipment was all present and accounted for. Without Rose, it was a lot to trek in and out of the house without an exact plan for placement, so he decided to head in first, meet Rey, and get a feel for an appropriate place to film the interviews that he would cut in with footage of the actual building. Pulling out his DSLR bag, he withdrew the camera from inside and attached his 35mm lens. He stepped back several feet from the roadside, snapping photos at various angles of the home’s exterior for the article. Satisfied with his work, he looped the strap around himself so the camera could rest comfortably at his side and headed to the front door.

As he took the steps on the front porch one-by-one, they creaked. Just as the steps of any haunted house should. _Nice touch_ . Approaching the front door, he made a mental note of the stained glass windows framing either side of it. Blue with a splattering of yellow stars and a crescent moon up in the corner on his right hand side. He would have to capture those details later when he was wrapping up. He reached his hand up to the door knocker, and furrowed his brows in confusion at the odd looking creature that held the knocking hoop in its mouth. It’s body was shaped almost penguin-like, but instead of a beak it had the tiniest fangs protruding from the corner of its mouth, and eyes so large it almost hadn’t any room _for_ a mouth. He’d seen lions, chimaeras, even a dracula-shaped door knocker on his journey, but even in life he had no idea what to call this creature. Instead of fearsome it was almost… cute. _Gargoyles are so fucking weird_.

He grabbed the hoop hanging from the oddlings mouth and used it to knock on the belly of it two, three, four times. He stepped back from the door about a foot, wanting to give Rey some space when he answered the door. No need to intimidate him with his sasquatch size. He heard some shuffling from behind the door, and after only a few moments, it swung open to reveal… well, in short, the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He had to hold his breath to keep himself from making some sort of embarrassing sound in front of whoever this was.

She was on the taller side for a girl, pale skin covered in freckles. Her chocolate colored hair was pulled back into a messy bun that allowed him to see that those freckles continued well into her hairline. He tried his damndest _not_ to notice how her black sweater’s wide neckline revealed the most delicate collarbones, and when had he decided that collarbones were sexy, anyway? Weird. He tried even harder not to let _her_ notice that he had noticed. 

“Hi!” The young woman greeted him with a bright smile. _God_ , her smile... and her voice. It should have been odd to him to hear such an accent in the middle of bumfuck Indianna, but he was too busy still holding his breath. “Ben, right?”  
  


“Y-yeah, yeah, Ben Solo.” He stammered as he reached his hand out to clasp the one she offered him. _Her hands are so tiny._ “Mr. Noone should be expecting me. I’m a little early but-”

“ _Mister_ Noone?” The young girl let out a soft, breathy laugh, confusing Ben.

“Yes? I’m a writer and producer from Millenium, I’ve been talking to Rey about doing an interview and-”

“I’m sorry to cut you off again, Ben.” She had entered a full-on fit of laughter now, and Ben felt his cheeks flaming in confusion. What had he said? “There is no _Mister_ Noone. _I’m_ Rey. Rey Noone.”

“But you’re not a man.” Of course she wasn’t a man. Could he have said or done anything more stupid?  
  
“How… incredibly... observant of you.” She was struggling to breathe in her bouts of laughter, which seemed to only erupt into an even louder, borderline obnoxious, bit at his outburst. 

So _this_ was Rey. Rey… which he had previously thought was spelled sort of oddly, but now suddenly had such a feminine air to it. Rey, who was standing directly before him literally taking his breath away. Rey, who was laughing at him because all along he had clearly thought she’d be a man. His heated cheeks deepend further as her laughter increased in tempo before finally slowing down to a soft giggle. Great. Not only was she laughing at him, he was _blushing_. Just fucking great.

“I hope you’re not disappointed,” She finally said, the last of her laughter escaped at the tail end of the phrase, her hazel eyes finally locking on his. “But the last of the Mister Noones passed away about three years ago.”  
  
The implication is clear, and Ben immediately feels worse about his assumption. 

“I am so, so sorry.” Ben started, taking a half step forward but unsure what the decorum was in a situation like this. When it came to women, he was awkward at best and despite his attraction to this woman, he didn’t know her. Didn’t know what she would find creepy versus kind. What kind of words or touches she was comfortable with. He found that he wanted, so, so badly, to hug her. Somehow that felt both natural and as if it would fall under the creepy category at the exact same time. He ultimately decided to err on the side of seeming sincere yet indifferent, and shoved his hands in his pockets quickly, eyes cast downward. “I, um. Yeah, I guess I should have done some more research on the family before coming out here. I’m, shit I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine, Ben.” Rey reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, gripping him there firmly but not aggressively. “You’re not the first person to make such assumptions. I hope it comforts you to know that I fully expected you to be a small, elderly woman.”

He finally looked back up at her face at this. Her mouth had been drawn into a straight line indicating a serious tone. Flicking his eyes away from her lips for a moment, he caught sight of her eyes which danced with playfulness. She was teasing him. The ever-present blush on his cheeks had started to dissipate, but was now taking up residence in his ears. He could feel the heat of them under his hair and thanked his lucky stars he had skipped out on that last haircut before hitting the road. 

“So, shall we begin?” Rey asked, moving her hand from his shoulder and gesturing to the side of the door where a small patio table with two folding chairs had been set up at the edge of the front porch. 

“Oh, um, yes.” Ben said awkwardly, already missing her touch and mentally kicking himself for even thinking such a thing. “I, um, actually hoped I could get the interview footage and photos from somewhere in the house. There aren’t a lot of photos around of all the different artifacts you guys have. I could even help you rearrange some things, I have a full studio set up on my trunk.”  
  
“That won’t be necessary,” Rey waved him off and continued across the porch to the table. “Photos and videos upset the spirits, and no one is allowed to touch them. We can do the interview here and you’re welcome to all the exterior shots and drone footage you’d like. All other photos will have to come from my grandfather’s archives. Everything that has ever come into this home has a file, and every file has an attached photo. I’m happy to e-mail photos of whatever artifacts interest you for the article.”

Ben lets this information sink in a bit. He works his jaw, chewing the inside of his lower lip in thought. He hadn’t had any issues at the other houses taking photos and videos of the inside and hadn’t anticipated he’d run into that problem here. _I guess_ , he ponders to himself, _this house has already been full of so many surprises_.

“Ok, but what about the house itself?” He finally asks, running idea after idea through his mind as quickly as possible. He can deal with the lack of photos for the article, there are four other houses that he was able to photograph. But no video? Leia would not be happy about that. “I can’t even get a few shots of the interior without the artifacts? I’m really more concerned about the video portion. Our YouTube channel-”  
  
“Ben.” Rey said in a voice so stern it caused Ben to instantly stand up straighter. “I’m sorry. Truly, I am. I’m happy to tell you anything you want about anything within that house, but the only area in the house that hasn’t been touched and wouldn’t be upset at the cameras are my private chambers.”

_Great. Now he was thinking about her private chambers, and how they wouldn’t be upset with his camera._

“Have a seat, won’t you?” She still carried a sternness in her voice that commanded his obedience, so he strode quickly the rest of the way across the porch to join her at the table. For a few moments, they just stared at each other. Her face was neutral, though he noticed a tinge of pink in her cheeks that hadn’t been there before. Perhaps she had been having the same thoughts about her private chambers… “So, what do you know so far about the House of Noone and what could I give you to help your article along?”  
  


All business, then. Ben reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, opening up the recording app and showing it to her in a silent request for permission to continue. She nodded her assent and he hit the red “record” button before placing his phone on the table between them.

“Well, um, I know your grandfather inherited this house before he became a paranormal investigator and turned it into a museum. How long has it been in your family?”  
  
“Oh, goodness.” Rey leaned back in her chair, resting her elbows on the armrests and lacing her fingers together as she gathered her thoughts. “Easily a hundred years, though the exact amount I’m not sure, honestly. My great-great grandfather, Obediah, built it. He worked in the orchards just up the road for years after moving to America.”

“So your whole family going back at least…” Ben counted out with his fingers; Rey’s parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents. “four generations have lived here?”

“More or less, yeah.” Rey began to twiddle her thumbs together as if she were attempting a thumb war with herself. “After my dad died I grew up in the UK with my mum until I was about twelve, maybe thirteen.” _That explained the accent_. “Then when she got sick she sent me to live here with my grandfather and I’ve been here, or at least very nearby, ever since. But other than that I haven’t got a very large family. My uncle was to inherit the house when Grandfather died, but he refused. And he has no children of his own so he signed the deed over to me the day I graduated university. Said he couldn’t wait to get away from all this, the spirits terrified him.”

“But they don’t scare you?” Ben couldn’t help the scoff that came with his admonition. The furrowing of her brows let him know that it hadn’t escaped her notice, either. “They don’t keep you up at night?”

“Do you not believe in spirits and hauntings and the like, Ben?”

“We’re not talking about me, I just-”  
  


“Just answer the question.” She moved her elbows to her knees and leaned forward, resting her chin in her open palms. “Indulge me.”

Ben stared her down for several moments. He wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a friendly continuance of their conversation, or a challenge. If the former, he could answer with candor; if the latter, he might quickly offend this woman. She ticked an eyebrow, urging him to continue. _So we’re going with candor_.

“No, honestly, I don’t. I think a lot of this possession stuff is bullshit.”

The next several moments moved like molasses. Slow, thick with anticipation. Her face did not change. Her brows did not furrow, the straight line of her full lips neither lifted nor faltered. He had no way of knowing if what he’d just said had been a good or a bad thing in her eyes. Her eyes, which he now realizes are actually hazel and not the light brown he had originally thought. They were almost all green when flickers of sunlight filtered through the tree branches and danced in her irises. _Olive green_.

“Then why are you here?”  
  
“I- what?” She didn’t sound like she was accusing or condescending, she simply sounded curious, so Ben supposed he hadn’t fucked up too badly. “I’m writing an article for-”

“Yeah, for Millenium, I know, but they could have sent anyone. They could have invited any of a hundred different ghost hunters who _do_ believe and would love the opportunity to get within a hundred feet of these artifacts to guest spot in the issue. Why you?”

“Well, why haven’t those ghost hunters been allowed here before?” He countered without missing a beat. “If they were so desperate, they surely would have been to visit without an assignment to do so?”

“Because I know they wouldn’t listen.” Rey said evenly. She still hasn’t shown any signs of being perturbed or upset by the direction of their conversation, and Ben wondered for just a moment how far down this rabbit hole they could go before she tapped out and he would have to go back to his mother with his tail between his legs. “They’re all so hungry for clout in the ghost hunting community, and they all know my rules. And yet, I know, every single one of them would break those rules in a heartbeat and sneak in with a bodycam, or attempt to sneak photos on their phones to sell. I’m not stupid. I can’t have that.”

Ben leaned forward, hitting the pause button on his phone to put a stop to the recording.

“What _do_ you believe, then, Rey? Do you believe in all this?” He gestured behind her towards the house.

“What I believe,” She began, inching forward the slightest bit, or was that him trying to get closer to her from his side of the table? “Is that I have seen too much in my lifetime to not believe in _something_.”

“But is _this_ that something?” Ben asked before he could stop himself. He wasn’t sure where this boldness had grown from, but he found he didn’t care. “All this haunted, voodoo nonsense? Do _you_ believe in _that_?”

“I don’t deal in voodoo, Benjamin.” Rey said, leaning back once again, lacing her fingers back together in an almost menacing manner. The way one might see from a Disney villain forming a plot. “You want to know about voodoo? Call a shaman. I deal with demonic possession and paranormal phenomena.”

“But that’s not the question I asked you.”

At this, she narrowed her eyes slightly, making Ben wish he could open a black hole right there on her front porch and fall into it. Her bubbly, playful demeanor was completely gone and it made him wish he would have just kept his mouth shut the way he always had when it came to women. Without waiting for a cue or permission, Rey reached out with her much-smaller-than-his hand and tapped the button indicating the recording would continue.

“Were those all the questions you had? I could answer a lot more, but if that’s all you need…” Her chipper, customer-service voice betrayed the steely look she had placed across her face. No longer was she neutral; she was in high gear and ready to go. 

“So, erm.” Ben cleared his throat, straightened up in his seat and continued on. “You grew up in the UK then came back here,” Ben leaned back to mirror her pose, elbows settling in on his own chair’s armrests. “What all were you aware of about your grandfather’s collection? Did you know much about it at all before you came to live here?”

…..

Forty-five minutes later, after concluding their interview, and Ben snapping a few photos of Rey, she stood and gestured for them to head inside. 

“You can’t properly write about it if you don’t at least see it, right?”

Ben nodded and allowed her to lead him through the front door, pausing to once again admire the stained glass. When he entered, the house was exactly what one would picture of a proclaimed haunted home on the inside, as well. The trims, railings, cabinetry and flooring were all made up of a dark wood, a vintage almost paisley-esque carpeting lining the staircase. The home, though not in bad shape, did not look to have been updated since at least the Seventies, if he had to guess. There was a certain dankness that filled the air and made the hairs on the back of Ben’s neck stand on end. He didn’t believe in ghosts, or spirits, hell, he wasn’t sure he even believed in God, but the energy in the room caused the inner part of his stomach to sink as he took in his surroundings. _It’s all in your head, Ben. Get it together_. 

“So, to your left,” Rey lifted her arm up and out to Ben’s left and his eyes followed. For the briefest of moments she reminded him of a flight attendant, the way she gestured with just her pointer and middle fingers. “Is the parlor. In there you will find the piano. No one is allowed to touch or play it. It has not, to my knowledge, been so much as tuned since it came into my grandfather’s possession in the early Eighties.” She took only a few steps toward the open doorway, carrying a confident yet cautionary air as she did so. Ben noticed right away the careful way in which Rey did not cross the threshold. Out of fear or respect, he could not tell. “It was collected from another haunted house belonging to a minister that was emptied by authorities upon his death. The piano itself was not believed at the time to be haunted, but at times it does feel moved to play by itself. I like to imagine the spirit living in it is just lonely.” 

Ben scribbled all of her explanations down quickly in the small notebook he kept in his pocket for emergencies. He had originally wanted to do voice recordings as they moved through the tour, but like with video and photography, Rey had shut that down immediately. “I don’t know you, Ben, you could just as easily be sneaking photos if you’ve got your phone right there.” she’d said. She looked back at him then and smiled softly before turning to the are on his right. 

“This is the dining room.” She explained, walking through the threshold with an ease she had not carried with her outside of the parlor. “The china hutch just there holds a variety of smaller objects that have been donated and blessed. None of those were collected by my grandfather, so their origins are murky at best but on our way back if there are any you’re interested in then on the way back I’d be happy to go through our records to find whatever I can about it.” 

She hung back as Ben approached the cabinet. His eyes scanned the knick knacks as quickly as possible. After a few moments, he bent slightly to view the items on the lower shelving and he found himself transfixed on what looked to be a healing crystal of some sort. Similar in color to a ruby, with one smooth edge and the rest jagged and textured. It was almost as if the crystal was calling to him, begging him to reach into the cabinet and touch it. 

“What can you tell me about this one?” Rey joined him at the cabinet and followed his eyes and pointed finger to land on the crystal. “Is that a healing crystal? I’ve never seen one that color.”

“Ah, it certainly appears to look like any other healing crystal, but I don’t believe it is.” Rey was just level with his face, and close enough that as she breathed out the lightest touch of her breath brushed against Ben’s cheek. “The person who brought it in called it a _kyber_. Said he’d been collecting it as long as he can remember, but they are only meant to come in yellow, green, blue or, sometimes, a purple-ish color. He said red represents evil and darkness so he brought it here to be blessed and protected. Or something of that nature.”

“So it's not really haunted, then.” This wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

“No, as far as anyone knows, that particular item has never actually come into contact with a demon or spirit other than the ones it shares the cabinet with.”

“Huh.” Ben pondered the possibility of asking if he could hold it, the pin-prickly sensation urging his fingers to just reach out almost too much to handle it. Still, eventually he straightened himself and made eye contact with Rey once more. He nodded his head, letting her know he was ready to continue.

“Just through this door back here is where we house the majority of our collection, the main living area and original master suit were combined to create one large display space.” Rey waved her arm before herself, again just two fingers pointing the way, “that door to the left, behind the staircase leads to the basement. I don’t typically allow every visitor into that space, unless it is blessing day and I have a priest handy, but I can let you walk through briefly if you would like.”

“Is that where your robot is?”

“He’s not a robot, and you’ll do well not to say that in front of him.” Rey corrected, though her stern tone from earlier was nowhere to be seen. “He is a droid.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Well, I don’t know, Ben,” she rolled her eyes at his question. _Brat_. “but when it comes to these demons and their preferences I don’t often think to question it. I have to live here, after all.”

They began walking through the display. He noticed the majority of the items were dolls in various forms of disarray. Board games ranging from the typical ouija board to one of his own childhood favorites, Operation, were stacked atop one another in the far corner of the room. He started to walk closer, only to find himself walking directly into a velvet rope and nearly losing his balance. Looking down he realized the entire area had been blocked off like a red carpet event. 

“Are these ropes always up?”

“When I’m not available to give guided tours, yes.” Rey explained. “When I’m available, I’m able to monitor the guests so that nothing gets disturbed, but if not I think it best not to take any chances.” She took a few steps towards him, reached forward and grabbed for the rope where it was settled against his hip. As she wrapped her hand around the thick velvet the back of her hand brushed against him and he was bombarded with the image of her hand wrapped around something else only a few inches to her right. “I can remove them for you, though, if you think I can trust you?”

“You can, yeah, you can remove them, that'd be great.” _Motherfucker, can you be any more obvious._ Ben cleared his throat, thankful that she hadn’t seemed to notice the sudden change in octave.

Nodding, Rey went to work removing the ropes, lifting up a trap door beneath the rug to reveal a small storage space, tucking away the ropes there as she went. Ben took a tentative step forward, goosebumps beginning to prickle along his arms and neck the closer he got to the items. Glancing all around, he tried to locate any of the vents that might indicate the temperature in this room was intentionally kept lower to aid in the mysterious feeling, but he could not see any. As his eyes wandered, he continued walking forward, unaware of the low table set just to his right.

“Ben, look out!” 

Without stopping her turned his head to ask Rey what was wrong when the sharp pain shot through his leg. He’d run his pinky toe right into the leg of the table, causing it to rattle as he howled in pain, jerking his leg back away from the offending item. Rey rushed forward, arms stretched before her to protect any of the items resting on top of the table from falling.

“Goddammit, motherfuck! Fucking shit goddamn fuck!” Ben shouted as he hopped on one foot, attempting to ease the throb of his small toe. “I think I fucking broke my toe, god fucking fuck!”

“Oh stop it, you big baby.” Rey crossed her arms in front of her, clearly not amused with his antics. “You either be more careful, or this tour is done now! I realize your eye-level is about 4 feet higher than the average human being, but just because you’re a sasquatch and built like a damn refrigerator doesn’t mean you can be neglectful. Especially not here.”

Ben felt the tips of his ears begin to flame again as he massaged his toes through his shoe. It wasn’t easy being a sasquatch, and though he could tell she was not making fun of him the same way so many had all his life, he couldn’t help but to still feel embarrassed. He could only be thankful that his tomato-colored ears weren’t on display as well; he didn’t think he could stand to hear her comment on how massive _those_ were. “Sorry…”

“It’s fine,” Rey breathed out, looking around her to ensure nothing had been disturbed. “I do mean it, though, Ben. Please, please be careful. You can not touch anything, even accidentally. The spirits are always on alert, always ready to break free to walk among us. I couldn’t live with myself if one followed you home.”

“Well, I mean, I doubt they could even if they wanted to.” Ben shrugged. Rey cocked her head slightly to the side, her right eyebrow quirked up in question. “I mean, I don’t believe in this shit, so even if something wanted to haunt me I doubt it could.”

“Ben,” Rey said softly, letting out a short, breathy laugh as she shook her head at him. This time, though, Ben could tell she was not laughing at him, and instead he focused on the way she’d said his name. A barely there breath, “just because _you_ say the sky is green doesn’t mean it _isn’t_ blue. I’m afraid your belief or lack thereof will do little to dissuade these spirits from using you as a conduit if they get the opportunity.”

“If you say so, Rey.”  
  


“I do say so, Ben.” she whispered, her eyes focused intently on his, the corners of her mouth turned up just slightly into a ghost of a smile. 

“Ok, then.” Ben breathed out, hoping beyond hope that she couldn’t hear his heart thundering in his chest the way he can. He had to hold his breath to keep from gasping aloud when she then reached out and gave his bicep a gentle squeeze before she led him forward into the collection. He paused just long enough to let go of the air he’d been holding onto before following suit. He made a show of squeezing his arms closely to his body and silently prayed that it would keep him from brushing up against anything again.

“As you can see, though a bit chaotic, we try to keep things separated by category.” She stopped and turned to resume her flight attendant duties. “Here on my left we have board games. I’m sure you’ve heard of a ouija board, but many of these games have had various hauntings. That one you’re looking at? ITs previous owner claims that the plastic mice came to life and killed their cat in its sleep.” She smirked when she saw the grimace on Ben’s face. “There is a copy of monopoly in the pile next to it that has been known to levitate.”

“Have you ever actually seen any of that stuff in action?”

“I’ve seen enough.” Ben found his grimace turning into a smirk of his own when she rolled his eyes at his insolence. “As you can see, we have a lot of dolls. They are a very popular conduit for spirits. No one really knows why, but I suspect it is easier for them to communicate with humans by inhabiting something that is a bit human-like.”  
  
“ _This_ one definitely doesn’t look human.” Ben approached a stuffed… animal of some kind. It has long, matted red-brown fur, small black pearls for eyes, and what looked to be a red hood. It was filthy, and the smell coming off of it didn’t help. “What the hell is this supposed to be? A bear?”

“His name is Wicket.” Rey came to stand next to him. She looked him up and down, as if it was the first time she’d noticed how tightly he pressed his arms against his sides. “Ben, relax. You don’t have to be so stiff, just be careful.”

“What’s ‘Wicket’s’ story?”

“My grandfather found him sometime in the mid-sixties, thereabouts. He’s one of the first artifacts that Grandfather brought to keep at the house.” Rey explained. She made eye contact with the strange ball of fur. “We don’t know much about the spirit that lives in him, only that he has been found at the murder site of every family who has owned him. He’s adorable, but he’s not to be trusted.”  
  
“You think _that_ is adorable?” Ben couldn't be bothered to hide his incredulity. 

“I try to see beauty in the oddities of the world.”

“Well, I would definitely call this thing an oddity.”  
  
“Takes one to know one.” Rey didn’t miss a beat. At this, Ben relaxed his stance. He dropped his shoulders and turned his face to make eye contact with her. The uplights that surrounded the different sections of artifacts, giving the room the proper horror movie lighting, bounced around in her hazel orbs, the blue tints in the light harmonizing with the greenest bits and causing them to have an overall lighter effect. Her eyes jumped back and forth between his as if they were trying to search for a response to her quip. The way they flashed down at his lips for the briefest of seconds caused a lump to form in his throat, though he could not be certain if that had been intentional on her part or not.

“I am odd.” He said as evenly as he could, and hoped that the tremble he felt did not lend itself to his voice. “So are you.”

Her eyes widened just a fraction before she stepped away from as she cast her eyes to the ground. Internally, Ben began to kick himself. He’d never been a particularly good flirt, and it was certainly a rare moment in time when women approached him. There had been the occasional bed mate he would pick up from the gym or a bar, and the one girl he had dated for most of college, but generally speaking Ben was not a ladies man. And there he was abysmally embarrassing himself in front of the single most beautiful woman he’d ever met. _Again_.

“So, as we continue through this way,” Rey began to circle behind the collection of dolls to walk into the area at the back of the house. “We have a collection of clothing items that may be of interest.”

Ben followed, arms resuming their position of being stuck dramatically to his sides. This method, however, proved to upset his equilibrium quite a bit. Without the weight of swinging arms to counterbalance himself, his long legs were much harder to navigate. Had anyone had the inclination to watch him, he imagined they would either assume him to be a drunk, or compare him to a baby giraffe learning to walk for the first time.

Rey paused to give Ben a moment to observe the variety of clothes before him. Some were on mannequins on full display, others pinned to the beams in the roof, others still simply hanging from hangers on three or four clothing racks. A strange, black suit towards the back caught Ben’s eye, so he approached. 

It appeared to be some sort of costume, he realized as he approached. All black. It consisted of a long-sleeved zippered shirt, leather-looking pants, with a wide belt wrapped at the waist, and a hooded cloak that draped all the way to the floor. Black leather gloves adorned the mannequin’s hand and tall, heavy-looking boots were on its feet. On the head of the mannequin, there was a metal helmet. The top was rounded and smooth, with lines of silver trim framing the eyes like a racoon. But none of that was what had caught Ben’s attention. Ben’s eyes, instead, are transfixed on the web red weaving its way across the mask’s face. The crimson was a perfect match from the kyber crystal from earlier, and the odd sensation of just _needing_ to touch it, to wear it surge through him at a nearly uncontrollable rate.

“Ben, stop!”

Rey’s frantic shout pulled Ben from his reverie, and it was at that moment he finally realized he had been reaching out, his fingers only inches away from touching the mask.

“I am so sorry, Rey.” He withdrew his hand as if he had burned it, shaking it. “What… what is this thing?”

“Some kind of warrior costume, there is not much information about the origin of the suit itself, only about the demon that possessed it. Kylo Ren is blood thirsty, dark energy incarnate. People who have worn this suit, even just the mask… they’ve done terrible things. The suit has been here since just after Grandfather began collecting.”

“Kylo Ren…” Ben repeated her. “Can we, uh, can we look at those files you mentioned earlier?”

“Getting a little scared now, are you?” one corner of Rey’s perfect mouth quirked up. She was teasing him again. 

“Oh, no.” Ben smirked back. “You’re not going to sway me with that reverse psychology bullshit. My curiosity just got the best of me, that’s all.”

“If you say so, Ben.” Ray huffed out a laugh and shook her head. “I can grab those files, but they’re downstairs in the basement. You’re welcome to come down there, of course, but I cannot stress this enough - you must not touch anything. I mean it, Ben. You need to get your curiosity in check.”

“I’m good,” Ben raised his hands in surrender. “I promise.” With his right hand he held his index, middle and ring finger tightly together while holding his pinky down with his thumb. “Scout’s honor.”

“Something tells me,” Rey muttered as she turned to head toward the basement door, waving over her shoulder for him to follow. “That you weren’t a very good boy scout.”

…

The basement was dark, and dusty, and… dank. The ceiling was just slightly too low for Ben to stand at full height comfortably, and his ears once again filled with blush when Rey giggled at him bending over as he walked. All throughout the room were a hundred or so items, most bundled together all in the center, but each of them in an individual glass case that resembled a greenhouse, all with the same label “Absolutely Do Not Touch!!”

“Maybe you should just sit on the steps, Ben.” She said through a snort of laughter. “It won’t take me long to gather up some of the files for you.”

Reluctantly, Ben agreed, crouching awkwardly back over the staircase they had just descended. Rey’s feeble attempts and suppressing her laughter failed her when, despite all of his hunching, he still managed to smack his head against the only light fixture in the entire room. _Fucking idiot_.

After he’d sat down, Rey disappeared around the corner to where the desk and filing cabinets were stored. Ben glanced around the room at all the different items. Similarly to what was upstairs, the majority of this collection seemed to be dolls or toys of some kind. He recognized a few from his childhood; a Teddy Ruxpin, one large case filled with a few different Care Bear dolls, even Woody from Toy Story was down here. He continued to look all around the room, looking for an item in particular that had made the headlines only fifteen years prior.

Rey had brushed him off earlier when he’d asked about the robot - _droid_ , whatever - so he knew it must be down here somewhere. Though he still refused to believe in any of this nonsense, he _did_ find that particular story to be interesting. It was the only artifact in the collection that had had multiple movies made about it, and when asked Rey had held fast that she had no interest in signing off on a movie about her grandfather’s other paranormal investigating, so the likelihood of there being any more movies about these artifacts was slim to none. Seeing the damn droid in person and getting some of the true information about it would certainly give Millennium’s content a boost.

As quietly and carefully as he could, he rose up from the steps and began to look around once more. Rey had ventured off to the far left side, so Ben decided he would go right. He nearly toppled over when he swerved sideways to avoid hitting his head on the light for a third time, and had to catch himself on the glass of one of the artifact boxes. Jumping away from it quickly, he looked around to see if Rey had heard the disturbance. Surely touching the glass didn’t count as touching the item, right?

Satisfied that Rey was not coming to lecture him, he continued to the back corner of the basement, shining the flashlight of his phone straight ahead. He adjusted the brightness so he wouldn’t be spotted and walked until he found a case much larger than the others. As he approached he recognized the iconic color, orange and white.

He circled the glass cabinet a full turn before realizing that the door was slightly ajar. The flashlight light refracted through the Glass walls, creating tiny dancing rainbows across the seemingly innocent droid.

He approached slowly, slightly perturbed, but not deterred, by the open door. When he got within a foot distance from the case, he bent down so that he was level with the droid’s ocular lens.

“So your BB eight? He whispered. “You’re the one everybody so scared of. “

He chuckled to himself, the droid was barely a foot and a half tall, possibly 2 feet but no more than that. This was the little antagonistic piece of shit that had a mass three blockbuster hits and caused young children across the nation to have nightmares? Such dumbasses.

She waved her hand in front of the glass, noting to himself the lack of motion from this supposedly haunted creature.

“You’re not even scary.” He waggled his fingers in a tease, waving his hands back and forth. After a moment, he began to make faces at the droid. Sticking out his tongue pulling on his ears, he’s something that might make a small child laugh,

Nothing. No reaction. No signs of life or hunting or any other nonsense. It was just a toy a simple children’s toy.

He glanced over his shoulder in the direction that Ray had gone. He listened intently, and heard the sound of papers shuffling as she searched through her filing cabinet for the files you had requested. Content in the knowledge that she would not be coming looking for him anytime soon, he reached a gentle hand forward and hold the door open fully. Just the slightest amount of hesitation, he pulled out his phone. He wasn’t scared, mind you. He was just worried what Ray would think when she found out. Better to ask permission then forgiveness. Or was it the other way around?

Say cheese motherfucker.

  
  
  


At the sound of the camera shutter the single overhead light in the basement exploded with the lightning crack. The room became pitch black, even his flashlight had gone out. There was a streak and then bud, though it did take several minutes for Ben to register that only one of those sounds had come from Ray.

“What the fuck did you do Ben?!“ Ray bellowed from the other side of the basement. There was _that_ tone again, only this time he couldn’t bring himself to straighten his fine. He began to curl in on himself as the eerie feeling of dread took over. He wasn’t scared. He wasn’t. None of this was real. None of it. Not real. “Then?? Where are you?“

“I- I - I-” he stammered. At this point there is no reason to lie, she already knew he wasn’t at the stairs where she left him. “I’m over by BB8’s case.”

“Why, and I cannot stress this enough, in the _fuck_ did you not stay at the stairs like I told you to?“ Her voice was closer now, the shuffling of her steps getting closer helped to calm his nerves. How she could navigate in such pitch black, with a mystery to him. He couldn’t see any light from the flashlight on her phone, so it must’ve gone out as well. “I asked you, very nicely I might add, to have a seat on the stairs. That was for your own protection, Ben. Not only are you a giraffe with what appears to be _no_ control over your body’s movements, apparently you can’t follow instructions, either. I asked you not to touch anything, and now I know you fucking touched something. What was it?“

“It was… BB eight?“ It came out sounding more like a question, as if he wasn’t sure what exactly he had just done only moments before.

“Great. Just fucking great.” She couldn’t have been more than a few feet away by this point, her voice was so close he could practically feel her breath near his ear. “Now I have to call the priest, he was just here two days ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Oh, she was _right_ in front of him now. Now he didn’t need to imagine her breath, he could feel it on the front of his throat. “You’ve just unleashed the worst thing in this room and all you can say is sorry?”

“It’s just a doll, Rey.” Ben said, attempting to feign confidence but certain she’d be able to see right through it. “I checked.”

“Oh, well, I feel _so_ much better, knowing that _you_ checked. My hero.” He didn’t need light to know that she was rolling her eyes. Hard. “I don’t have reception down here and I need to get the priest here immediately. You may not take this seriously, Benjamin, but I’ve seen what the droid can do.”

“You can’t tell me that thing is dangerous, Rey. It’s a _toy_ .” Ben thanked the Gods above for the darkness then. He’d already blushed entirely too many times in front of this beautiful, infuriating woman, and this time though he knew he deserved to feel shamed, he was desperate to hold tight to whatever dignity he still had left. “Besides, I didn’t actually touch him. I just tried to take a picture and then the lights went out.”  
  
“You took his picture?”

“I- yes?”  
  


“Ben…” Her elbow brushed against his chest as he felt her raise her arm, and he imagined that she must have been pinching the bridge of her nose. “I asked you not to do that.”

“I’m sorry…”

“I need you to stand here.” She cut him off before he could say anything more. “Stand here, in this exact spot, I am not kidding, Ben. I’m going to go upstairs and get a hold of the priest before this little fucker wakes any of his friends up.”

He feels her take a deep breath in and out; she hadn’t lowered her arm yet and the very end of her elbow continued to brush against him in an up and down motion. Before he could question himself on why, he reached out clumsily and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She was tall, for a woman, and as he pulled her towards himself he realized she was the perfect height to rest his chin atop her head. Perfect height for _him_. 

Despite her frustration and anger at him, he felt her shoulders relax as he swayed the two of them slightly, hoping his awkward and unannounced hug could somehow remedy the situation.

“I’m _sorry_.” He whispered. At this, Rey finally reached her hands up. He could feel the slightest tremor from her as she wrapped her arms around his waist and turned her head sideways, snuggling against him like a cat. He sighed. Reaching his own shaky hand up, he smoothed his palm over the back of her neck, rubbing what he hoped were comforting circles into the base of her skull.

“OK.” She finally breathed out after a time had passed. She pulled away then, and Ben could not be sure if it was his imagination playing tricks on him or if he could just make out her bright eyes. He imagined that those olive eyes had a smile in them somewhere. “I forgive you, but Ben I am not kidding. You need to stay right here. I’ll be right back.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to say that in a scary movie?”  
  
Rey chuckled and pressed her forehead against his collarbone. Before finally pulling away and releasing her arms, he felt a gentle kiss press through his shirt where her forehead had been resting and an instant heat began to flood throughout him. His cheeks, his ears, his chest, his… well, _everywhere_. Thank God for the dark.

“And I thought you didn’t believe in all this stuff?”

“I, um, I don’t.” Ben took a half step back, needing a bit more distance. “But, I don’t want to, uh, to risk you. I mean, I thought you knew the rules, but I guess someone’s gotta remind you.”

“Those are the Hollywood rules, Ben.” Rey's delicate hand gave his bicep a squeeze, solid and comforting the way she had earlier when he’d made a fool of himself and had nearly fallen. Now, he wasn’t so sure he wasn’t still falling. “In here, there are only two rules. No touching and no pictures. You broke both of them.”  
  
A sheepish grin forms on Ben’s face at her words, though in the pitch black there’s certainly no way she can see it. Not sure what else to do with them now that she’d extricated herself from his embrace, he shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down to where he knew his feet were. “Yeah, I did.”

  
“I’m going upstairs, I will be right back.” She repeated. “Do not move.”

“I won’t, I promise.”

He felt rather than heard her walk away, the crunch of broken glass under shows and the creak at the steps only a few seconds later are his only indication that she’d made it there at all. He looked all around, unable to see anything, but curious all the same. He strained his eyes forward, willing himself to develop night vision so that he could catch a glimpse at the bastard Rey apparently believed caused all this. It dawned on him then that while the flashlight seemed to be out of commission, his phone itself had not shut off or burst into flames.

He quickly fished it out of his pocket and, pointing in the direction he was sure the case in question was located, he unlocked his screen so the backlight might give him a better view of what was there. And it worked. Only… _nothing_ was there. What? He started to take another step forward, then thought better of himself. He wanted to prove he wasn’t a complete imbecile and the way Rey had navigated this place in the pitch black left Ben with the impression that she most certainly would know that he’d moved, even if only a foot or so.

He remembered that he’d heard some kind of thud earlier. He had originally assumed that it was Rey slamming the cabinets drawers in response to the scare. It had certainly sounded that way… but now seeing the empty case he realized it must have been the damn droid falling out of the case. He angled his phone in all directions, but had no luck locating BB8.

Without leaving his spot, Ben spun around in a circle, continuing to angle his phone every which way in the hope that he would at some point catch a glimpse of orange and white somewhere. If for no other reason, to prove that everything was actually fine. Because it was. _Toys don’t just come to life and roll away. Spirits weren’t real. Possession wasn’t real_. So certainly it had to be there somewhere. 

As Ben began to lower himself to the ground, having decided that the slight crouch he was doing to avoid hitting the ceiling would do his back no favors, he heard a bustle of movement near the stairs. _Good_ , he thought to himself, _Rey must have gotten a hold of the Priest_. He silenced his mind to listen for Rey’s descent, hoping not to be surprised by her arrival whenever she rejoined him in the basement. 

What he heard, instead, sounded vaguely familiar. He was brought back to his sixth Christmas, the one during which he’d received a remote control racecar. The buzzing, whirring sound of miniscule machinery working inside the small car, propelling it forward and backwards, faster and faster. _What the hell is that?_

Only seconds later, the whirring was joined by the distinct pitter-pattery of a wheel, or something else round, rolling around and catching on the imperfections of the concrete basement floor. Rey was messing with him. She had to be.

“Rey?” No answer. “Rey, stop messing around. Whatever it is you’re messing around with isn’t going to scare me and it isn’t funny.” Still no answer.

The rolly-buzzy-whirring sounds had halted as he called out to Rey. _Good. Better stop mesi-_

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

Ben froze. The hairs on the back of his neck began to rise. That sound was not coming from the top of the stairs. It sounded up high, but too close to him to be coming from Rey. Tap. Tap. Something was tapping on one of the glass cases, he was sure of it. The harder he listened, he realized the tapping was actually more of a clink. Clink. Clink. It had to be the glass. _What. The. Fuck._

“Rey??” Without his permission his voice cracked. He couldn’t hide his panic anymore, embarrassment be damned. “Rey, what’s going on??”

The doorknob at the top of the stairs began to rattle, and he felt himself rattling with it. 

“Ben?” Rey’s voice was muffled. She was on the other side of the door. “Ben can you hear me?”

_Clink. Clink. Whir. Clink. Buzz. Click. Clack._

“Rey!! Something’s happening down here!”

Rey muttered something from her side of the door that sounded an awful lot like ‘duck’.

“Ben, follow my voice, ok?” The clinking-whirring-clickity-clack-buzzing began to increase in frequency, the melody of sounds seeming to surround him from all angles of the room. _Shit_. “Ben??”

“I’m here, Rey!”  
  
“Ok.” Had that been relief or annoyance he heard in her voice? “Follow my voice over to the stairs, ok Ben?”

“I haven’t moved yet, Rey. I’m sitting down, I don’t want to knock anything over!”

_clinkclinkclackitywhirclack_

“Crawl, then!” Definitely annoyance. Damn. “The overhead light is broken, so you need feel in front of you a little at a time so you don’t cut yourself. Just follow my voice, ok?”

“Ok, I’m going to try.” He tucked his legs underneath himself before rising onto his hands and knees and beginning to crawl. Rather than raising each hand from the ground to guide him forward, he shuffled them so that he could more easily detect anything that might be in his way. “Rey?? Can you- just- talk to me, please?”

_clinkclinkclinkwhirwhirwhirbzzzzzz_

“I’m here, Ben!” She said, the rattling in the doorknob continuing (had it stopped at any point?). “Just keep listening to me, you just need to get to the top of the stairs - he can’t climb up them.”

“O-ok.” Ben sniffled, unable to contain the hot tears from forming in his throat and bubbling up through his eyes. “Can I, can you just keep talking?” 

“What do you want to talk about, Ben? I’ll tell you anything, just follow my voice!” Rattle. Shake. Rattle. New sounds joined in the symphony that had consumed the basement; beep, boop, brrrr.

_clinkbeepbeeprattlebrrrclackitybrrrshake_

“Anything, Rey! Just talk.” He hated the way his voice had become a whine, but if she would just keep talking, keep him safe… “ _Please_. Anything, tell me anything you want me to know! Just… don’t stop talking, please!”

“My last name isn’t Noone!” His left hand paused as it brushed against the leg of one of the many display tables. _Ok, pivot right_.

“What?”

“Well, it is, but it isn’t.”  
  


_beepbeeprattleclickboop_

“What.. What do you mean?”

“My great-great-grandfather was an orphan!” _rattleshakebeepclickitybeepboopclink_ . “He grew up on the streets. He was only eleven when he snuck onto the ship to America.”  
  
_beepboopbeeeeeepbzzwhirclink_

“Keep talking!” His right pinky touched a sharp, small shard. Shit. “I’m at the broken glass!”

“Ok, ok good, you’re almost there, Ben!” _rattleshakerattlebzzzboop_. “You need to very carefully shuffle to your right, keep feeling with your left hand once there’s no more shards veer left just slightly then the stairs are a straight shot!”

“Ok!” He followed her instructions carefully. Shuffle right. Feel left. No glass. Veer left. “OK, ok I’m past the glass!”  
  
“Ok, Ben it's just straight ahead! Keep going!” Her voice was clearer now; still muffled with the thick basement door but clearer than it had been.

_bzzzwhirclinkclinkclinkboopwhirbzzz_

“Hurry, Ben!” He hastened his pace, his knees knocked his hands out from under him more than once in his flurry to reach the stairs. He did his best to keep his hands reaching in front of him to feel for any obstructions.The journey from glass to stair seemed to last longer than the culmination of the journey up to that point, and he felt a fresh waves of tears begin to form as hopelessness began to swallow him. It was then that he felt it.

Bump. Bump. 

“ _Mother fucker!_ ” At the feeling of something distinctly round and plastic bumping, backing up and bumping his thigh again, Ben sprung into action. bzzzbzzzwhirbzzzbeep. Ben jumped to his feet 

“Ben??!” Rey shrieked, her rattling of the door handle became frantic, so frantic in fact, Ben worried she might rip the knob clean off the door. “Ben?? Ben, what's happening?!”

“That fucking thing touched me!” Ben knew, just knew, that he sounded like a child, his own shrieking bordering on being an even higher pitch than Rey’s. He continued forward, away from the sounds of BB8 rolling around behind and in the most forward direction he could manage. “That stupid fucking robot touched me!”  
  
“He’s a droid!”  
  


“Not helping!!”  
  
“If you had just stayed at the stairs where I told you to”  
  
“ALSO NOT HELPING!” Ben felt as if he were running in circles. Although he couldn’t see it, he knew BB8 was only inches away from his ankle. He craned his neck back, trying to form the shape of the giant marble that was chasing him, when his ankle instead came into contact with the final step, causing him to tumble forward into the staircase. “Fuck!”

“Ben??”  
  
“I’m coming up, I’m coming up!” He scrambled to his feet and took the stairs two at a time, desparate to creat some distance between him and BB8. _Thud. Thud. Thud_. He could hear the droid trying to roll itself up the stairs, meeting defeat several times before retreating. Bzzzbzzzwhirboopboopbeep

When he’d reached the top of the stairs, he splayed his palms against to wood frantically, as if enough force from him to get it to open.

“Ben, is that you?”  
  
“It’s me, it’s me! Let me out!”

“Don’t you think if I could get this damn door opened I would have done that already?”  
  
“SHIT.”

“Ben, it’s fine.” Rey’s voice softened instantaneously, taking on a soothing tone that had Ben pausing. “Just breathe, ok? Can you do that for me?”

He does. In, out. In, out. The damn droid is still rolling around making ridiculous sounds, tapping on the cases of who knew how many other stupid items but knowing that Rey was just outside of the door helped him to slowly tune it out. “Can you tell me more? Please?”  
  
“What else do you want to know?”

“Everything.”  
  
“Everything is a lot.”  
  
“I know. I want whatever you’ll share with me.”

“My last name isn’t Noone.”

“So you said.” Ben smiled to himself and huffed out a laugh. He pressed his forehead against the door and took stock of his situation. The gooseflesh on his arms and neck had begun to subside, the sweat that he hadn’t noticed forming on his brow causing his thick waves to stick to him everywhere they touched skin. He could not possibly have looked or felt less attractive if he tried. Still, despite knowing she was probably rolling her eyes at his obnoxiousness on just the other side of this door, and would no doubt laugh at him again when she saw his dishevelled state, he couldn’t help but to press on. “You never explained how that happened though. Tell me?”

There was a pause. A sliver of panic began to set in. She hadn’t meant to tell him, he was sure. She had just blurted something out to keep _him_ calm. He had no right to bring the words from her mouth when her offering had run dry. He heard her take a deep breath before finally speaking again.

“So, my great-great-grandfather, Obediah, the one that built the house. He was an orphan.” She paused again, and with his face so close to the door he could practically feel the deep, calming breaths she was forcing herself to take. “He grew up on the streets and when he was eleven, he snuck onto a ship heading to America. Well, when he got here, he had to fill out forms with his name and birthdate and things like that. Immigration wasn’t the way it is now, you know? You could escape whatever hell you’d grown up and be whoever you wanted to be in America. But, Obediah didn’t know who he was. So he filled everything out the best he could, and under the surname he wrote “No One”. He was a no one, as far as anyone could tell.” 

She trailed off and Ben gave her the chance to pull her thoughts together. 

“Well, when you don’t have someone to guide you, or make sure you’re fed, or that there’s a roof over your head, you certainly don’t have anyone helping you with your penmanship. Immigration had come up with their own interpretation of his writing, there were rumors for a long time his first name may not have even been Obediah.” She let out a laugh at that. “He is quoted as saying ‘I was not born a Noone, but I do not regret a moment of becoming one. Where you are from does not dictate where you can go.’”

“That’s beautiful.” It was, so he felt he had to let her know.

“I have it tattooed on me.”  
  
“Oh? Where?” His face heated at the question, possibly much too intimate despite the story she’d just shared with him; something that, had it been public knowledge, he surely would have come across it somewhere on the internet before he came here. He hoped he had not overstepped.

“My ribs. Near my heart.”  
  
_Fucking hell_. He continued to breathe in and out, willing himself not to picture her shirtless, tattoo revealed on his left side. Would she have more hidden tattoos? Would he like that? He’d never dated a girl with tattoos, not that he was going to date Rey, but maybe he’d like to...

“I’d-” He cleared his throat, the words catching there, his body trying to help stop him from making an even bigger fool of himself. “I’d like to see that someday.”

Nothing. He heard neither breath nor movement from the other side of the door. The only discernible noise anywhere in the vicinity was the continued clank clank beep boop of BB8 as he continued to roam the basement. The goosebumps from earlier began to prickle at his arms again. “Rey?”

Still nothing. Fuck. Like much everything else in his life he’d fucked things up, just when they were going in a direction he hadn’t anticipated but was eager to explore, he had to open his big mouth. He slid down and turned, leaning his back against the door and bending his knees to create a resting space for his elbows. Criss-Cross Applesauce had stopped being comfortable for his giraffe legs in the fourth grade. In her continued silence, Ben chose to focus on his breathing. Partly to calm himself from his blunder, and mostly to calm him from the strange afternoon he’d had.

“... you _know_ how he is, Father; it's been over a year since anyone’s woken him up and now he’s down there trying to open up the other cases.”  
  
With no warning, the basement door was jerked open, causing Ben to fumble backwards and smack his head on the hardwood.

“Ow.”

“Ben! What are you doing?” He blinked up and saw Rey standing with a gentleman - the priest, he realized upon further inspection - not much taller than she. “Nevermind, get up. Father Finn needs to get down there before BB8 gets out of control!”

She bent down and it was all Ben could do not to blush further when her hands curled around his bicep for the third time that day. Had he been counting? Possibly. He was jelly in her hands as she jerked him up to his feet, pulling him backwards to make room for the priest - for _Finn_.

“H-how did you get the door open?” He rubbed the back of his head with his free hand - it didn’t go unnoticed that she still hadn’t let him go and the warm low in his gut made him feel both completely light and completely nauseous. 

“Finn has a key, in case we need him to go in. I stupidly left mine at the desk when everything started happening.” Rey explained as she looked him over. Seemingly absentmindedly, she reached up and began to brush the hair that had stuck to his forehead in his distressed state. Without meaning them to, his eyes fluttered closed and he leaned into her touch. She lingered for only a minute, her thumb stroking his cheekbone lightly before her hand pulled away. The absence of her warmth lasted only the briefest of moments before the opposite hand flew across his face in a SMACK!

“What the fuck?!” He stumbled back, his hands flew to his face, attempting to soothe the stinging pain he now felt there. The softness Rey had just been showing him was replaced with fury. _This woman is feral._

“I told you not to touch anything!” She folded her arms across her chest and the way she shook with anger was almost… cute. “I told you not to take pictures and you did! I mean, dammit Ben, you make it so damn hard to like you when you keep making my life hell. That little bastard is the biggest pain in my ass, that’s _why_ he’s in the basement.”  
  
“ _You_ like me?”  
  
“Don’t change the subject.” If she rolled her eyes any harder, they would surely get stuck back in her skull. “He is the most ornery, trouble making little shit and now he’s awake and Finn has to try to wrangle him. Finn was _just_ here, Ben!”

“But… you like _me_?”

“I won’t if you keep saying that.” There is not even a hint of a joke in her words, but he can’t stop the smile that is slowly but surely spreading across his face.

“You _like_ me.” No longer a question.

“Fuck off.” He wasn’t expecting it, the way she threw herself at him. The way her fingers tangled in his hair so effortlessly. And he most certainly was not expecting how sweet she would taste when her lips slanted against his own. It took several moments for his brain to catch up to his body, and he apprehensively placed his right hand on her hip, and splayed his left across her upper back. It had been so long since he’d been touched in such a way, it almost felt like his first kiss all over again. While she seemed to know exactly what she was doing, exactly what she _wanted_ , Ben felt like a teenager, clumsy and unsure of himself. He felt like he was _dreaming_. This couldn’t possibly have been happening. 

Then just as quickly as she had flung herself at him, she was pulling away, covering her mouth with her hand. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes glassy, as if she were wondering if the kiss had been a dream, too. They stood there, eyes locked and breath heavy, both trying to make sense of what had just happened. Over and over again, Ben opened his mouth to speak, but words escaped him. After the fifth attempt at speaking, Rey began to giggle. He couldn’t help it, he joined her.

“So, would you say you’re a believer, yet, Benjamin?” She was smiling now, a large, toothy, perfect smile and eyes practically glowing.

“I would be remiss to say no, I think.” Ben rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, embarrassed that he had denied it for so long after everything he’d experienced in that crazy afternoon.

“Good.” Her smile never faltered as she stepped closer to him again, her hands coming up to rest on his chest. “So, I think it goes without saying then… if you touch anything again, you can forget about _ever_ seeing that tattoo.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


HUGE shoutout to [CaliforniaQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaliforniaQueen/pseuds/CaliforniaQueen) aka [@Lil_Red_Hed](https://twitter.com/Lil_Red_Hed) on twitter for being my first Reylo friend and gifting my beautiful Moodboard!!! And to [LadyBrettAshley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrettAshley/pseuds/LadyBrettAshley), aka [@UHadMeAt_Reylo](https://twitter.com/UHadMeAt_Reylo) over on Twitter for being my sounding board and listening to me babble on and on about how tired I am while getting absolutely nothing done! This one's for you, friend!

[follow me on twitter!](https://twitter.com/unicornthefncfl)

**Author's Note:**

> I had SO much fun writing and researching for this! House of Noone is based on the Occult Museum owned by Ed and Lorraine Warren. Ed and Lorraine are a famous demonologist and psychic medium duo who for nearly 50 years built their career on paranormal investigations. Many of their haunted items' stories have been adapted in The Conjuring film series. All of the artifacts featured in this story are based loosely on those in the museum, and I'm curious to see if anyone can guess which items are which! Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy in these crazy times! If there are any things you feel I should have tagged PLEASE let me know!!!
> 
> Special thank you to 
> 
> This is my first attempt at writing proper fanfiction in nearly 10 years, please be nice !
> 
> [https://twitter.com/unicornthefncfl](twitter)


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